Merry Christmas!

Wishing all my readers a Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays….

Chuvanna Cheera/Red Spinach/Amaranth Aviyal Travancore style

Amaranth is a very nutritious leaf vegetable found commonly in the tropical regions. The leaves are very good source of vitamins & minerals & hence its good to include this nutritious leafy vegetable in your diet. In different parts of Kerala, this leaf is used to cook different dishes. One of the most popular one being cheera aviyal. This is made by cooking the amaranth leaves & mixing it with ground coconut & spice mixture and tamarind. Amaranth leaf is also used to make cheera thoran which is yet another popular menu item in a malayali household.

Banana Peanut Smoothie

Banana Peanut smoothie/milk shake... You can call it whatever you like... It is a refreshing, healthy, nutritious and tasty drink that can be made in no time. This is very similar to the Sharjah shake that we get in bakeries & fresh fruit juice joints in Kerala.This smoothie is made by blending banana, peanut & little sugar (optional) to a smooth consistency. Due to the presence of all healthy ingredients, this is one of the guilt free smoothies that you can have. 

Appam / Hoppers

Appam is a very popular breakfast item in Kerala & Tamil Nadu. This also prepared in Sri Lanka where it is called Hoppers. This is a type of pancake made with fermented rice & coconut water batter. This is usually a breakfast item, but its also had for dinner. There are many variations of Appam such as Kallappam, Vellayappam, Milk Hoppers, Egg hoppers etc. Appam goes well with Chicken curry, Egg curry, Stew etc.

Potato Koottu Curry/Potato Curry

Potato Koottu curry is what we call the potato curry in the southern part of Kerala. This is a popular accompaniment for idiyappam, appam, chapathi/roti etc in Kerala. Different versions of koottu curry are available. Some people make it adding coconut milk, some make it adding urad dal vada/ uzhunnu vada which is a special occasion delicacy. Here I've made yet another version of potato koottu curry thats cooked without the coconut milk or uzhunnu vada. The recipe includes Big Onions, potatoes, Spices, Masalas etc. It can be eaten with Chapathi/Roti, Idiyappam/String Hoppers, Idly, Dosa etc

Prawns Fry/Prawns Roast

Prawns Fry is a very popular & tasty side dish accompaniment for rice or chapathi/roti. Due to its lower cooking time, this is one of those seafood dishes that can be prepared in a hurry, but will still taste delicious! The interesting part is that this dish requires very few ingredients such as Prawns, Big onions & spices. This is a very popular dish in Kerala.

Idiyappam/String Hoppers

Wishing all malayalees a very Happy Kerala Day! Idiyappam is one of the most popular breakfast item in Kerala. It is also prepared in other parts of South India & Sri Lanka. This is a very healthy steamed breakfast which is also very easy to make.

To make the idiyappam/string hoppers you need a special tool which is called idiyappam/string hopper press. You can find different types of idiyappam press in the market. You can buy any of those, as they all work perfectly well.

This is the idiyappam press I used to make idiyappams.

Idiyappam is made up of rice flour & it is steamed and served with potato koottu curry or chicken curry or egg curry.

Kerala Egg Roast/Curry (My way)

Egg curry/roast can be prepared in many different ways. Its prepared with little gravy or more gravy. Different household prepare it in different ways. The most common ingredients that goes into this dish are Boiled eggs, Big onions, spices, masalas etc. Egg curry is a common accompaniment with Appam/Hoppers, Idiyappam/String Hoppers, Chapathi/Roti, Poori etc.

Perumpayar / Vanpayar / Red Beans Thoran

Vanpayar thoran is a very quick & easy to make side dish. This is a highly nutritious & healthy dish. In this recipe, the vanpayar is cooked & then mixed with a ground coconut mixture made of garlic, cumin seeds & spices. This mix is then cooked & combined well with the cooked vanpayar to be relished with rice. This thoran goes well with matta rice.

Daal Tadka

Tadka daal is a very popular north indian dish. It is usually eaten as a side dish for roti/chapathi, rice etc. The daal is cooked & then a tempering of mustard seeds, onions & spices gives this dish a beautiful aroma & flavour. This dish can be prepared using different varieties of daals/lentils available in the market.

Muringa ila thoran / Drumstick leaves thoran/ Moringa leaf thoran

Muringa ila or drumstick leaf is a very nutritious leaf. It is rich in vitamins, protein & other essential nutrients. The drumstick tree is one of the most common tree found in the rural household kitchen gardens in Kerala. The tree also yields a fruit called drumstick, the meat of which is widely used in cooking along with its leaves. Its a fact that muringa leaves can fight malnutrition especially in kids & nursing mothers. Muringa ila thoran is an easy to prepare dish like most thoran recipes. All you need to do is to first cook the muringa leaves & then combine & cook it with the ground coconut, garlic, cumin seeds & spice mixture.

Red Velvet cupcake

Red velvet cupcake is a very popular cake in many countries. It is not only a very colourful cake, but also a very yummy cake. It is usually made with frostings. The most commonly used frostings are Cream cheese or Buttercream frosting. I made this cake without any frosting. I have referred to multiple cookbooks & internet for this recipe.

Travancore style Anchovy / White Bait / Netholi Fish Curry

Parippu / Kerala Daal Curry

Parippu is an unavoidable dish for any sadya menu in Kerala. The preparation of this dish is entirely different from the north indian daal.

Travancore Style Naadan Chicken curry

Travancore Fish Curry

Cabbage Thoran

Moru Kachiyathu / Yoghurt curry

Introduction

Hello everyone,

I am a native of Kerala, the southern part of India, which is better known as Gods own country. I am very passionate about traditional & authentic food with a special interest in traditional Kerala cuisines. In my blog, my effort will be to promote the food that I love the most, the food that I grew up eating. All recipes in my blog are tried & tested in my kitchen. Most of the recipes, especially the traditional kerala recipes that I intend to include in my blog are either of my own or I learned from my family. And some of them, especially outside kerala recipes, will be inspired from various recipe books/cookery shows/blogs etc with my personal touch... Living abroad for a while now, but my passion for traditional Kerala food has only grown over the years. Though I would not want to restrict to just traditional Kerala recipes, you could expect more of Kerala recipes along with recipes from other parts of the world. So stay tuned...

Note:

• If you have any suggestions please let me know by commenting below. 
• Apologise for not having any pics of the food. There are two reasons for that. First reason is that I'm still an amateur in food photography. And the second reason is that, since I just started blogging, I do not have any good quality photos of the recipes mentioned in the blog. But be assured, I'll upload them as soon as I get to click some really good ones.